Some of the most influential worship leaders weigh in on this vital question.

10 a.m. on Sunday morning. In a small, steepled church, people sing a few old hymns backed by an organ, listen to a sermon, share in Communion and have bad coffee as they laugh and catch up in the church basement afterward.

A few blocks away, in a rehabbed industrial warehouse, a clock on a screen counts down the seconds to the start of the service. Before and after the sermon, a 10-person band led by a young, flannel shirt-wearing, ambient electric guitar-playing worship leader plays highly produced music from an elevated stage accompanied by full lights and a colorful media presentation.

Depending on your perspective, either of these scenarios might make you uncomfortable. Both evoke certain stereotypes based on your personal church context. Everyone would like to think the “worship wars” are a thing of the past, and most can agree people are probably worshiping in both of these contexts. But even so, everyone has their own distinct ideas of what worship is and—even more clearly—what worship isn’t.

Even for Christians who engage in sung worship each Sunday, many have nagging questions about the entire thing. What is “authentic” worship, and what does worship have to do with singing? Can individuals get there on their own, or do they need to be in community to “really” worship? How have modern trends like worship concerts aided worship—how have they hindered it?

To find out, we went to the source—asking some of the world’s foremost leaders in modern worship music. Their experiences differ: Some are in full-time local ministry, and others get paid to write and perform original music. But all of the leaders, in their own way and context, have dedicated their lives to trying to help God’s people worship Him. They presented us with thoughtful opinions, across styles and spectrums.

What Happens When We Sing?

Singing is one of the most elemental ways Christians respond to God in worship and tell the Gospel story. Song has always been a central worship practice for the people of God: The Israelites celebrated in song after crossing the Red Sea, and Paul talks about hymns, psalms and spiritual songs in Ephesians 5. Today, people meet God through organ-led hymns, electric guitar-driven choruses, evensong services, banjo folk songs, gospel choir improvisation and countless other traditions.

“I think there is some mystery in song,” says Steve Smith, associate director of worship arts at Harvest Bible Chapel in Naperville, Ill. “It’s historical, it’s biblical, it’s bigger than us. We’re joining together with the voices of generations of believers in this practice of singing to God.”

Singing opens the worshiper up to God, Smith says. “There is something about song that expresses the inner heart of the singer that just saying the words can’t express. It allows communication from our souls.”

Hillsong Church creative director and worship leader Joel Houston agrees that music stirs something deep in worshipers: “[Singing] helps us push past our brain. When you’re singing a song, your soul is open, your heart is open, but you’re also not thinking too much about it.”

But worship isn’t merely an emotional response. It’s profoundly holistic. “When you are a part of a body of people singing to some[one] greater than them,” says Lisa Gungor, who—with her husband, Michael—is part of the band Gungor, “it’s hard to not be engaged with your whole person.”

Preferences and Division

While music has power to unify, preconceptions about what worship “should be” can easily divide. Isaac Wardell of Bifrost Arts, a collective of musicians exploring the power of sung worship, calls it a great irony. “There’s something very dark and unfortunate about the fact that music, which is this thing that has the capability of uniting people across language, cultural and generational barriers, can end up doing the exact opposite thing for people sitting next to each other in the pews. We don’t have a vocabulary for seeing worship as something that’s here to connect us and not a way to define ourselves.”

It’s when people refuse to budge from “our kind of worship” that division happens. These unwavering preferences—the willingness to split over things that aren’t essential—aren’t just an issue in the Church today. Paul addressed the same thing in his letter to the Corinthians.

The Church there had split into factions. Some said they were of Paul, some of Peter, some of Jesus. Paul reminded them—and Christians today—that being part of the Church means being part of a family, and that means sacrificing and compromising for the sake of unity (1 Corinthians 1:10).

“How much of it is me, me, me, and how much of it is we, we, we?” Wardell asks.

Worship leader and songwriter Vicky Beeching puts it like this: “Everyone has to lay down their preferences when we gather, finding the common denominator.”

Tangibly, that common thread is the response of the Church to Christ. “Even with all of the different styles and cultures of worship today, the heart of worship music is the unified voice of the congregation,” Smith says. “All the other aspects of worship are there to support the singing of the church.”

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